Tom Clancy's Power And Empire

A struggle for power rumbles at the highest levels of the Central Committee of the People's Republic of China in Beijing.

A growing threat from China leaves US President Jack Ryan with only a few desperate options in this continuation of internationally bestselling Tom Clancy series.

On the fringes of the Pacific Ocean, a catastrophic explosion destroys a Chinese container ship.

In Texas a solitary Highway Patrol trooper stops on a deserted road to find a young Hispanic girl with no identity, a murky history and information to kill for.

In the White House, President Jack Ryan faces his toughest negotiation yet.

Amid a web of coincidences and connections, it soon becomes clear a series of incidents around the world are connected. And at the centre of the web is a threat as dangerous as anything Jack Ryan has faced before . . .

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Extract

PROLOGUE

A dozen men clad in bright orange coveralls and white hardhats swarmed the decks of CGSL Orion, the 396-meter flagship of China Global Shipping Lines, like ants. The hollow thud of metal box against metal box rattled the air, adding a bass note to the scream of gears and the whine of spinning cable drums. Gargantuan orange gantry cranes towering fifty meters above dipped and rose, then dipped again, their noses swinging back and forth from dock to ship with payloads of white, green, blue, or red metal containers known as TEUs, or twenty-foot equivalent units.

Gao Tian, chief of the ants, stood on the concrete docks of Dalian. This was one of the busiest container hubs in China, and the mountain of TEUs stacked beside the huge vessel made the man look and feel minuscule. He waved his good arm and spoke into the radio clipped to a loop on the chest of his coveralls. The broad smile across his face belied the frenetic pace of the activity around him. Far too busy with their own tasks, none of the other dockworkers looked up to pay any attention to his flailing arm, but they listened intently to his voice over their respective radios. His job was to coordinate and make certain the loading went quickly and safely; of all the people on the docks, Gao was intimately familiar with the dangers.